Title

Authors

Document Type

Class Paper

Publication Date

12-1-2015

Abstract

Readers around the world pick up on the nuances of literature. We see the differences between genres, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle. We can see how authors often insert their own experiences, beliefs, and personalities into their works. This makes each book unique and pleasurable while remaining similar to thousands of others. Many who study American literature know that different styles and literary movements influence authors. It is easy to see the impact of Puritan thinking in the seventeenth century or of Transcendentalism in the first few decades of the nineteenth century. Authors usually do not combine genres. However, three authors—Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville—each combine two styles, Romanticism and the Gothic, that at first glance appear radically opposite.